Committee of the Whole

“ The work of Congress is largely done through committees. The House of Representatives, as constituted to-day, is an unwieldy body. It is obvious that four hundred and thirty-five men is too large a number to work effectively as a whole. Every bill, even a recommendation from the President, is referred to an appropriate committee. It is only because of these many committees that it is possible to transact the very large amount of business that comes before Congress every year. ”

“ From this moment she exists chiefly as a Member or President of innumerable Committees. No sooner does the shadow of a political idea flit through her brain, than she forms a Committee to promote its development. ”

“ In a word, we have no supreme executive ministry, like the great “Ministry of the Crown” over sea, in whose hands is the general management of legislation; and we have, consequently, no great prizes of leadership such as are calculated to stimulate men of strong talents to great and conspicuous public services. The Committee system is, as I have already pointed out, the very opposite of this. It makes all the prizes of leadership small, and nowhere gathers power into a few hands. ”

“ The central committee shall have power to appoint from its own members an executive committee of seven persons, five of whom shall be a quorum, who, when the central committee is not in session, shall have and exercise all the powers of the central committee. ”

“ Infinitely tragic too is the fate of those Jews who, by rigorous orders of the military authorities at a notice of from three to twenty-four hours are expelled from whole provinces of Poland, their presence near the area of hostilities being considered “a danger to the safety of the Russian arms.” Leaving their homes and belongings, the fruit of years of hard toil, an open prey, the unfortunate exiles by the thousands wend their weary way to towns and villages, thirty or more miles distant, that have not yet come within the decrees of the military authorities. ”

“ The Reform Committee desires that the public will aid them with the loyalty and enthusiasm which they have shown so far in the maintenance of its organization, and will stand firm in the cause of law and order and the establishment of their rights. ”

“ The legislation of the country is handled almost entirely in committees. It requires a possible revolution to overcome the hostility of a committee, even if the House and the country are otherwise minded. ”

“ It is the duty of the chairman to call the committee together, but, if he is absent, or neglects or declines to call a meeting of the committee, it is the duty of the committee to meet on the call of any two of its members. ”

“ The Executive Committee thinks it's going to do all the work, but it's got to report to the General Committee, and it it'll be a great piece of luck if the General Committee doesn't insist on asserting itself by upsetting all the decisions of the Executive Committee. ”

“ The work is parceled out, most of it to the forty-seven Standing Committees which constitute the regular organization of the House, some of it to select committees appointed for special and temporary purposes. Each of the almost numberless bills that come pouring in on Mondays is “read a first and second time,”—simply perfunctorily read, that is, by its title, by the clerk, and passed by silent assent through its first formal courses, for the purpose of bringing it to the proper stage for commitment,—and referred without debate to the appropriate Standing Committee. ”

“ A special committee is appointed for a specific purpose, and until the duty assigned it by the society is accomplished it continues to exist, unless sooner discharged, which requires a two-thirds vote if done without notice being given. The fact that an annual meeting has intervened does not discharge a special committee appointed by a society. ”

“ A committee for action should be small and consist only of those heartily in favor of the proposed action. A committee for deliberation or investigation, on the contrary, should be larger and represent all parties in the assembly, so that its opinion will carry with it as great weight as possible. The usefulness of the committee will be greatly impaired, if any important faction of the assembly be unrepresented on the committee. ”

“ The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie. ”

“ No select committee can proceed to business in the absence of any of its members, unless a quorum has been fixed, and if I had desired, as had been shamefully alleged, to thwart the Government I had only to hold my tongue, and all the committees appointed would be paralysed until a complete attendance was obtained, but I crossed the floor, and mentioned the difficulty and its remedy to the leader of the House, and to no other person whatever. ”

“ No one questions that the competency of a Committee of either House of Congress depends upon the action of the House in constituting the Committee, and in determining the rules governing its procedure. ”

“ The President of the Assembly can, if necessary, of his own initiative or by the desire of ten Members of the Assembly or of a Minister, form a Secret Committee, without the presence of newspaper reporters or spectators, composed of a number of persons chosen from among the Members of the Assembly, at which the other Members of the Assembly will not have the right to attend. ”

“ Only the Committees are enlightened. There is a conclusive objection to the publication of the proceedings of the Committees, which is recognized as of course by all parliamentary lawyers, namely, that those proceedings are of no force till confirmed by the House. A Committee is commissioned, not to instruct the public, but to instruct and guide the House. ”

“ Popular committees are considered here, as with us, in the light of substitutes to constitutional government, and as being only necessary in the interval between the removal of the former and the establishment of the present. ”

“ In a number of places the local Jewish community has readily joined in the relief work, doing its utmost to meet the demand for food, shelter, clothing; the local philanthropic and communal Jewish institutions thus becoming valuable agencies of the General Relief Committee. On the whole, however—particularly as far as Poland is concerned:—the organization of assistance to the war sufferers is meeting with endless difficulties, [105] due largely to the fact that the suffering population is in such a state of frantic terror, that many Jews do not even dream of applying to anyone for assistance. ”

“ If they are of opinion to name a Committee that shall be authorised in a special manner to defend the rights and interests of the States, and of the public:—to do their utmost by every conciliatory measure in their power, and above all, to agree to an arrangement that shall screen the States from all interruption in the circulation of their Notes, which have been issued for the benefit and advantage of the public, with the design of gradually diminishing the number annually. ”

“ Where it is intended to organize a society for the intellectual improvement or social enjoyment of its members, a number of persons meet together and select a name for the organization. The next step is to appoint a committee, whose duty it shall be to prepare a Constitution and code of By-Laws for the society. These must be reported to the society at its next meeting, and must be adopted by the votes of a majority of that body before they can take effect. ”

“ We cannot quit this subject without observing, that the arduous and unremitted assiduity of the Gentlemen forming the Committee, met the warmest approbation of their fellow citizens, and afforded a prospect that, at a future period, their labours for so desirable an object would ultimately be accomplished. ”

“ Some one moves the adoption of the By-Laws reported by the committee, and they are treated just like the Constitution. The Chairman then asks: “What is the further pleasure of the meeting?” or states that the next business in order is the election of the permanent officers of the society. In either case some one moves the appointment of a committee to nominate the permanent officers of the society, which motion is treated as already described in § 47. As each officer is elected he replaces the temporary one, and when they are all elected the organization is completed. ”

“ It must, therefore, invariably happen that the Committee holding the floor at any particular time is the Committee whose proposals the majority wish to dispose of as summarily as circumstances will allow, in order that the rest of the forty-two unprivileged Committees to which the majority belong may gain the earlier and the fairer chance of a hearing. ”

“ In contemplation of such an improvement of the Index as is begun in this edition, the Statute Law Committee adopted a paper of instructions, prepared by Sir Henry Thring, [1] the nature and purport of which appear from the following extracts: *⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠* The general scheme of an index to the Statute Book is to group under comparatively few effective titles the whole of the Statute Law, and to refer by cross titles to the sub-divisions of that Statute Law as found under the proper effective titles. ”

“ These rank among the most outstanding obligations of the members of every Spiritual Assembly. In whatsoever locality the Cause has sufficiently expanded, and in order to insure efficiency and avoid confusion, each of these manifold functions will have to be referred to a special Committee, responsible to that Assembly, elected by it from among the friends in that locality, and upon whose work the Assembly will have to exercise constant and general supervision. ”

“ There shall be an executive committee of five who shall have power to act for the good and betterment of the society in all matters not stated in these by-laws and rules or otherwise provided for, he shall be empowered to make orders for betterment of society, and their work and orders to be approved by society vote. ”

“ A special committee to investigate and report upon a subject should consist of representative members on both sides of the question, so that both parties in the assembly may have confidence in the report, or reports in case there is disagreement and a minority report is submitted. By care in selecting committees in ordinary assemblies, debates upon delicate and troublesome questions can be mostly confined to the committees. ”

“ We have already stated that the industrial life of Poland and in a large part of the Pale has been laid waste as a consequence of the war. Hundreds of factories have been destroyed, hundreds others have had to stop work for want of capital, raw material, fuel and—first and foremost—for want of a market for their articles of production. Many thousands of workmen who were formerly employed by these factories have remained without bread.
Whole branches of trade have been shattered, burying the welfare of the artisans under their ruins. ”

“ The methods of the committee do not impress an observer as having been the result of much consultation or careful preparation for their work. There is an apparent indifference on the part of some of its members to reaching results, or to remaining steadily in the pursuit of the purposes for which it was organized. ”

“ When the House goes into committee, according to the formal Parliamentary phrase, the temptation to obstruct becomes indefinitely multiplied, for in committee a member can speak as often as he thinks fit on the subject—or, at least, such was his privilege before the alterations adopted in very recent years. ”

“ The beginning of the year 1782 was both the most active and the most interesting period in the history of the committee, because the political events of that time were of the greatest national importance, and they were affected mainly by the influence and energy of men who found in the committee their point of contact with the people. ”

“ Now the real value of this clause, and in this I think it shows a consumate statesmanship, lies not in what it says, but in what it suggests. The Committee, it will be observed, has an immensely important function, but no power beyond such authority as its representative character may afford. ”

“ The difference between our device and the British is that we have a Standing Committee, drawn from both parties, for the consideration of each topic of legislation, whereas our English cousins have but a single standing committee that is charged with the origination of legislation, a committee composed of the men who are recognized as the leaders of the party dominant in the state, and who serve at the same time as the political heads of the executive departments of the government. ”

“ Now, therefore, sir, I hope that, laying aside all these matters, which are entirely foreign, we shall act upon this resolution simply as a matter of business. No one has a right to complain of it that we raise a committee for certain purposes of our own when we judge it to be necessary. It is an imputation upon nobody; it is an insult to nobody; it is not any thing which any sensible man could ever find fault with, or be disposed to do so. ”